


Creating a Monster

by healingmirth



Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-28
Updated: 2009-05-28
Packaged: 2017-10-27 05:26:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/292090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/healingmirth/pseuds/healingmirth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate and Tony, and Tony's taste in movies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Creating a Monster

**Author's Note:**

> Written for ncis_lfws, set during Season One: Marine Down
> 
> Notes written on importing to AO3: When I wrote this, I had just watched the episode, and I think there was a movie that Tony hadn't seen (Shane?) or a reference that he didn't get, and that so utterly conflicted with his later characterization that I had to try to fix it.

Eventually, the flight settled from a lurching, nauseating, constant promise of death to a jolting, buzzing, rattling annoyance, but Kate realized that no amount of deep breathing was going to put her to sleep. She'd given up hoping that Tony was as uncomfortable as she was, but at least he hadn't fallen asleep, like Gibbs had, just to spite her.

Thankfully, he'd stopped eating, but now he was slowly working his way through a magazine - slowly enough that he had to be reading rather than just looking at the pictures, and her stomach gave one more lurch at the thought of trying to focus on words while bumping around. A few cautious glances to her side revealed that he was looking at a glossy magazine with photos of cathedrals and rain forests, and urban areas with tropical landscaping. From the headline on one of the  
articles, it appeared to be written in Spanish, so it wasn't much of a leap to assume he was reading something about their destination. He wasn't bouncing in his seat the way he had been in anticipation of Puerto Rico and Cuba - well, they were both bouncing in their seats, but not from excitement - but he was still way too upbeat for her peace of mind.

"You do realize that this isn't going to be a vacation, right, Tony? Just like Puerto Rico wasn't a vacation. Just like Cuba wasn't a vacation."

He turned the page again and then finally looked up from the magazine to acknowledge that she'd spoken, and smirked. "Just because there's no joy in your life doesn't mean the rest of us have to be bored too. Besides, maybe I just like learning about new places," he said, gesturing to the magazine.

Kate snorted. "You don't jump around like a 5-year-old because you 'like learning about new places.' What is it with you and trips? You act like you grew up locked in a tower."

Tony's gaze darted away, almost too quickly to notice, and when he replied, it was with the practiced smile that she'd grown to distrust shortly after meeting him. "Oh, we traveled, but my mother preferred the destinations that came with 5-star hotels and pricey fashion designers. Those are a little thin on the ground, South of the States." He closed the magazine, and turned a bit to face her. "What about you? You must've traveled all the time. You don't like it?"

If anything, she'd had even less time to be a tourist with the Secret Service than they had with NCIS. "We weren't exactly sightseeing, Tony. We were scouting locations for security risks." She paused to think. "There's places I'd like to go back to, though," she allowed "Beijing, Madrid, Prague..."

Tony grinned. "Oh, I've been to Prague," he said, with the quirk to his expression that he usually reserved for tacky innuendo, but this time, Kate had no idea what he was trying to imply. "I mean, I haven't _been_ to Prague, but I've... it's from a movie. _Kicking and Screaming_. Noah Baumbach? Parker Posey? That skinny blonde chick who looks like that skinny blonde chick who was on _Survivor_?" Kate still had no idea what he was going on about, and as her forehead wrinkled in confusion, Tony huffed out a frustrated breath. "Eric Stoltz?" he tried, then sighed, condescendingly, and shifted as much into his "storytelling" pose as his perch would let him. "It's a _great_ movie. Changed my life. Like a..." he trailed off, snapping his fingers while he thought. "Like a coming-of-age movie, but for adults. Y'see, it's about this group of friends, and they're all done with college, but they don't really want to move on, or know how to, an..."

"You haven't seen _Shane_ ," Kate interrupted, grumbling mostly to herself, "and you live your life with lessons from a Gen-X slacker comedy. Why am I not surprised?"

Of course, Tony objected, because he had an answer for everything. "Hey! _Kicking and Screaming_ came out at a very important juncture in my life. It's about figuring out who you want to be when you grow up." He nodded for emphasis, and then tapped a finger against his temple. "Stuff to think about."

"Word to the wise, Tony: if you want people to pay attention to your stories, you need to branch out a bit. When you start talking about movies _worth_ talking about, you can make as many movie references as you want."


End file.
